


Sunshine

by darkforetold



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 08:15:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13736832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkforetold/pseuds/darkforetold
Summary: Jesse saves Gabriel from himself.He became aware in stages. Darkness suffocating him. A tendril of it snaking around his insides. Squeezing his heart, his lungs, until he gasped. Something on his shoulder. Then a quiet voice.“Just me, darlin’.” It sounded sweet. “Just me.”





	Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to try a choppier writing style for this one just for kicks. Why not, right? No beta. All mistakes are my own.
> 
> Day 5: Devotion

He became aware in stages. Darkness suffocating him. A tendril of it snaking around his insides. Squeezing his heart, his lungs, until he gasped. Something on his shoulder. Then a quiet voice.

“Just me, darlin’.” It sounded sweet. “Just me.”

Then, he was warm. Impossibly so. An arm fitted around his middle, a body tucking in close to his—the big spoon to his little. They were in bed. In his private quarters.

“Gabe…”

_Jesse._

Jesse’s energy—it was nervous, seeping through his skin. Gabriel shuddered. Jesse held him tighter. Lips at the nape of his neck. Soft breaths. Heart beating like a gun firing against his ribcage. 

“What is it?” he heard himself ask.

A deep intake of air, scattered against his hair on the exhale. That inky blackness rippled with it. Danced. Surged with vitality. He winced against the pain. Shadow flecked off him like burnt-out embers.

Apprehension thickened the air.

“I’m… just gonna say it.” Brutal honesty sharp like a guillotine. “We gotta get out of here, Gabe. Ain’t nothin’ for us left here in Blackwatch. The UN’s breathin’ down our necks, tryin’ to figure out the best way to cut ‘em off. They’re gonna make you out to be the bad guy, you know that, right? They’re gonna flail you alive and the whole world’s gonna be watchin’. We— _Gabe_ , we gotta fuckin’ go. Tonight.”

Urgency. It sliced him open, spilled his guts. Gabriel took a shallow breath, the noose tight. Obligations ran through his head. Pride pinpricking his soul. “I should stay,” he said. It rang hollow.

Nuzzling into his neck. Warmth saving him from the wars waging inside.

“No, you shouldn’t.” 

He loved Jesse McCree.

“You should come with me.”

—but he wanted to kill him too. The thought of it… strangling him. His sickness made him feel giddy. Excited about spilling blood. Watching it run on the floors, seep under the door. Brown eyes turning dull under his hands. The throes of death. He needed to kill him… needed to…

“The… episodes,” Gabriel grated out.

“I ain’t afraid of ‘em, darlin’.” Fingertips trailed down his arm. “We’ll figure it out.”

He whispered, “Okay.”

Doubtful in the dark.

:::

Switzerland. Cabin in the woods. Hidden, unknown. Snowfall like daggers in his eyes.

Flames burned in the fireplace. Warming the chill in his soul. Smile on Jesse’s face. They were safe. Together.

—suddenly in so much danger.

The sickness flared up, engulfed him. Everything so black, so dark.

A blur of things, shattered memories. Violence.

He woke up in bed. Jesse wasn’t smiling anymore. Lip split, oozing blood. Jesse wiped it off with his thumb. His eyes were somber. Understanding. Not judging.

Gabriel had hit him. An episode.

“Tie me down,” he heard himself say.

“No. I ain’t afraid of whatever darkness you got inside you. It’ll get better. Moira can’t hurt you. Not here. Not anymore.” A sweet touch along his sweaty brow. “Gonna keep you safe no matter what I gotta do.”

Jesse smiled again. Warm, loving. 

He believed him.

:::

He opened his eyes. Morning light. Gray. Dark clouds hanging like grave shrouds. Silent save for the splash of water. Not here in the bedroom. The bathroom. His clenched his hands. Knuckles sore. 

Jesse washed his face in the sink. Skin around his eyes swollen but not yet shut. Nose flaring an angry red. Blood trickling down into his mouth. 

Their eyes met. 

“This ain’t your fault, Gabe,” Jesse whispered. Wounded.

Jesse could barely smile. Face too broken. 

:::

The knife wound was deep, but not fatal. Jesse winced. Thread through skin, knitting it back together. Pain on his face. All over his body. His beautiful, strong Jesse.

Gray morning light all around them. Dark clouds.

Jesse sighed in the small space between them.

“I ain’t givin’ up on you, Gabe.”

Jesse smiled. A guarded thing.

Gabriel ached.

:::

Strong fingers wrapped around his neck, squeezing. Jesse’s eyes bulged in his skull. Skin pale. Lips faded blue. Jesse hit at his arms uselessly. Gray light. All around. Clouds. Darkness. Suffocating him. Killing him.

His sickness—killing him. Jesse too.

But he could stop it.

Couldn’t he?

Gabriel let go.

Jesse sucked in cold, wispy air. Then sunk down to his knees in the bitter snow. He stood over Jesse, watching him struggle for life.

“It’s gonna be okay, Gabe.” Ribbon of a whisper. A cough. “You’re fightin’ back.”

Was he?

He didn’t know.

:::

Doe brown eyes tracked him. In them, a dull glimmer of _something_. In any other man, defeat, but not in his Jesse.

Even with a loaded gun against his head.

“Gabe…”

The hammer cocked.

The sound echoed off the walls. Their cabin. Hidden, unknown. Safe. Except danger—was everywhere. It slithered inside him. Dark, twisting like fingers in his brain. Whispering darker things in his ear.

_Kill him._

“Gabe…”

His Jesse. Voice sweet in his lightless world.

“You can fight this, darlin’. I ain’t givin’ up on you. Not now, not ever.”

His breath was ragged. Lips split again, wetted by the sweep of his tongue. 

“This darkness? It ain’t you. Your sickness? Ain’t you. _None_ of this is your fault.”

_Kill him._

Finger tense on the trigger.

“You know how I know you can do this, sweetheart? ‘Cause you’re the strongest man I know. Wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. I’d be dead if you hadn’t given me a chance at a real life. And if this is where it ends? Darlin’, I’d be the luckiest man alive.. ‘cause I know I’ve spent the best years of my sad life with you.”

Thin tendrils of black wrapped tight around his lungs. Constricting… 

“Come back to me, Gabe. Please… come back to me.”

… tightening…

“I love you.” 

… and snapping free. 

The gun clattered to the ground. Harmless. Where once he felt nothing—he felt _everything._

Guilt. Shame. Love. 

All at once.

He dropped down to his knees. Arms around his shoulders, so tight, so loving. His Jesse. His savior.

His sunshine. 

:::

“S’nice like this.”

Out on the porch together. Colorless sky now blushing with pink. Sunrise. No clouds. Clear.

Light, light, light.

Gabriel kissed his forehead, Jesse warm against him. Smiling. More beautiful than snow glittering in the waking morning.

“How do you feel?” Jesse. His Jesse. “Haven’t had an episode in… days, I reckon.”

Warm yellows across the sky, a touch of red. Jesse peering up at him, Gabriel nuzzling his nose. Rays of sunlight kissing their skin.

“I feel… alive.” Gabriel smiled. “Here. In my own mind and in control.”

Jesse kissed his lips. Sweet, pure, his sunshine when everything was dark.

“You saved me,” Gabriel said.

“Nothin’ I wouldn’t do a million times more if I had to, darlin’. ‘Sides… You saved me too. Who knows what kinda life I’d be livin’ if y’hadn’t come with me. Probably drunk… or dead somewhere. And at the rate you were goin’… You’d probably be half-dead, sulkin’ around in a buncha black leather or somethin’.”

Gabriel wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound like me.”

“You’re damn right it don’t. Better we ended up here. Now, take me to bed, damn it. That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir.”

He scooped Jesse up. Their cabin… hidden, unknown. Safe. No danger in the dark. Inside, the bed, less than five steps away. Gabriel and Jesse, on top of one another, a pile of limbs and urgent touching. 

“You’re bein’ mighty romantic.”

A whisper between their lips.

“Because I love you,” he heard himself say.

“Well, it’s your lucky day, ‘cause I love you too.” Jesse kissed him, teeth nipping at his mouth. “Fuck me before we get all sappy. I’m done spillin’ my tears over you.”

Gabriel thumbed his cheekbone, kissed him deep, tongue sweeping the seal of Jesse’s mouth. They kissed, naked now, hot skin against skin. Fingers slicked up, inside Jesse, fucking him until Jesse turned to liquid beneath him. Then, Gabriel was inside him, pushing deep to the hilt, fucking him as hard as he could. They came apart, slept soundly until the sun died in the sky, then spent their night by the fire. Warm, safe. Alive.

Sombra. They paid her to erase their identities. Retired to the Mediterranean, warm and remote. No one came for them. The only shadows they saw were theirs, cast on the warm sand. Hand-in-hand, happy, their whole lives stretching long and bright ahead of them.

Light.

Jesse.

His sunshine.

**Author's Note:**

> If there's any typos, please let me know! Thank you for reading! <33


End file.
